We propose theoretically and demonstrate experimentally a coherent microwave photonic receiver operating at 35 GHz carrier frequency. The device is based on a lithium niobate or lithium tantalate optical whispering gallery mode resonator coupled to a microwave strip line resonator. Microwave local oscillator is fed into the microwave resonator along with the microwave signal. We show that the sensitivity of this receiver significantly exceeds the sensitivity of the incoherent quadratic receiver based on the same technology. The coherent receiver can possess a dynamic range in excess of 100 dB in 5 MHz band if a low noise laser is utilized.
Harnessing nonlinear optical effects in a photonic chip scale has been proven useful for a number of key applications in optical communications. Microwave photonics can also benefit from the adoption of such a technology, creating a new concept of nonlinear integrated microwave photonics. Here, we discuss the potential of on-chip nonlinear processing towards the creation of robust and multifunctional microwave photonic (MWP) processors. We also highlight key recent results in the field, including frequency agile MWP filters and ultra-wideband signal generators.
We have measured the photonic bandgap in the transmission of microwaves through a two-dimensional photonic crystal slab. The structure was constructed by cementing acrylic rods in a hexagonal closed-packed array to form rectangular stacks. We find a bandgap centered at approximately 11 GHz, whose depth, width and center frequency vary with the number of layers in the slab, angle of incidence and microwave polarization.
We propose the use of silicon graphene waveguides to implement a tunable broadband microwave photonics phase shifte based on integrated ring cavities. Numerical computation results show the feasibility for broadband operation over 40 GHz bandwidth and full 360 degree radiofrequency phase-shift with a modest voltage excursion of 0.12 volt.
Microwave photonics (MWP) is an emerging field in which radio frequency (RF) signals are generated, distributed, processed and analyzed using the strength of photonic techniques. It is a technology that enables various functionalities which are not feasible to achieve only in the microwave domain. A particular aspect that recently gains significant interests is the use of photonic integrated circuit (PIC) technology in the MWP field for enhanced functionalities and robustness as well as the reduction of size, weight, cost and power consumption. This article reviews the recent advances in this …
Using only electro-optic modulators, we generate a 41-line 10-GHz Gaussian-shaped optical frequency comb. We use this comb to demonstrate apodized microwave photonic filters with greater than 43-dB sidelobe suppression without the need for a pulse shaper.
Meeting the ever increasing demand for transmission capacity in wireless networks will require evolving towards higher regions in the radiofrequency spectrum, reducing cell sizes as well as resorting to more compact, agile and power efficient equipment at the base stations, capable of smoothly interfacing the radio and fiber segments. Photonic chips with fully functional microwave photonic systems are promising candidates to achieve these targets. Over the last years, many integrated microwave photonic chips have been reported in different technologies. However, and to the best of our knowledg…
We demonstrate the first functional signal processing device based on stimulated Brillouin scattering in a silicon nanowire. We use only 1 dB of on-chip SBS gain to create an RF photonic notch filter with 48 dB of suppression, 98 MHz linewidth, and 6 GHz frequency tuning. This device has potential applications in on-chip microwave signal processing and establishes the foundation for the first CMOS-compatible high performance RF photonic filter.
We present results for a photonic microwave resonator designed and fabricated at 17.4GHz with a record high Quality factor (Q = 26,400) at room temperature over a mode volume smaller than one cubic wavelength. The cavity is uniquely designed to have its electric field concentrated in air, which allows for efficient coupling to free space and facilitates interactions with gaseous atomic systems and fluids.
In this paper we describe an application of the finite difference method to obtain the transverse magnetic photonic band gap diagram of a photonic crystal. The strategy of this method is to formulate the Maxwell equations in finite differences in order to write a computational code. We present experiments that confirm the validity of the calculations of the photonic band diagram as well as the refraction indix of such structure. All calculations were made for two dimensional metallic photonic crystal.
We report a novel class microwave photonic (MWP) notch filter with a very narrow isolation bandwidth (10 MHz), an ultrahigh stopband rejection (> 60 dB), a wide frequency tuning (1-30 GHz), and flexible bandwidth reconfigurability (10-65 MHz). This record performance is enabled by a new concept of sidebands amplitude and phase controls using an electro-optic modulator and an optical filter. This new concept enables energy efficient operation in active MWP notch filters, and opens up the pathway to enable low-power nanophotonic devices as high performance RF filters.
We report a simple technique in microwave photonic (MWP) signal processing that allows the use of an optical filter with a shallow notch to exhibit a microwave notch filter with anomalously high rejection level. We implement this technique using a low-loss, tunable Si3N4 optical ring resonator as the optical filter, and achieved an MWP notch filter with an ultra-high peak rejection > 60 dB, a tunable high resolution bandwidth of 247-840 MHz, and notch frequency tuning of 2-8 GHz. To our knowledge, this is a record combined peak rejection and resolution for an integrated MWP filter.
A novel parallel optical delay detector (PODD) is proposed for angle-of-arrival (AOA) measurement of a microwave signal with selective measurement range and signal-to-noise (SNR) enhancement. The PODD is experimentally demonstrated by using a dual parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator. The noise robustness enhancement is experimentally investigated. Based on the proposed PODD, the measurement error for the full range can be less than 0.02 radian (0.71% of full measured range).
Sideband-resolved coupling between multiple photonic nanocavities and propagating mechanical waves in microwave Ku-band is demonstrated. Coherent and strong photon-phonon interaction is manifested with optomechanically induced transparency and absorption, and phase-coherent interaction in multiple cavities. Inside an echo chamber it is shown that a phonon pulse can interact with an embedded nanocavity for multiple times. Our device provides a scalable platform to optomechanically couple phonons and photons for microwave photonics and quantum photonics.
A multimode optical receiver for free space optical communications (FSOC) based on a photonic lantern and adaptive optics coherent beam combining (CBC) of the lantern's single-mode outputs is proposed and demonstrated for the first time. The use of optical coherent combining in fiber serves to increase the signal to noise ratio compared to similar receivers based on electrically combined signals, and represents an all-fiber approach to low-order adaptive optics. This optical receiver is demonstrated using a photonic lantern with three outputs, fibre couplers and active phase locking, and furth…
With energy-time entangled biphoton sources as the optical carrier and time-correlated single-photon detection for high-speed radio frequency (RF) signal recovery, the method of quantum microwave photonics (QMWP) has presented the unprecedented potential of nonlocal RF signal encoding and efficient RF signal distilling from the dispersion interference associated with ultrashort pulse carriers. In this letter, its capability in microwave signal processing and prospective superiority is further demonstrated. Both the QMWP RF phase shifting and transversal filtering functionality, which are the f…
As one of the most fundamental functionalities of microwave photonics, microwave frequency mixing plays an essential role in modern radars and wireless communication systems. However, the commonly utilized intensity modulation in the systems often leads to inadequate spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) for many sought-after applications. Quantum microwave photonics technique offers a promising solution for improving SFDR in terms of higher-order harmonic distortion. In this paper, we demonstrate two types of quantum microwave photonic mixers based on the configuration of the intensity modulator…
Rapid progress in silicon photonics has fostered numerous chip-scale sensing, computing, and signal processing technologies. However, many crucial filtering and signal delay operations are difficult to perform with all-optical devices. Unlike photons propagating at luminal speeds, GHz-acoustic phonons with slow velocity allow information to be stored, filtered, and delayed over comparatively smaller length-scales with remarkable fidelity. Hence, controllable and efficient coupling between coherent photons and phonons enables new signal processing technologies that greatly enhance the performan…
Photonic synthesis of radiofrequency revived the quest for unrivalled microwave purity by its seducing ability to convey the benefits of the optics to the microwave world. In this work, we perform a high-fidelity transfer of frequency stability between an optical reference and a microwave signal via a low-noise fiber-based frequency comb and cutting-edge photo-detection techniques. We demonstrate the generation of the purest microwave signal with a fractional frequency stability below 6.5 x 10^-16 at 1 s and a timing noise floor below 41 zs.Hz^-1/2 (phase noise below -173 dBc.Hz^-1 for a 12 GH…
Highly selective and reconfigurable microwave filters are of great importance in radio-frequency signal processing. Microwave photonic (MWP) filters are of particular interest, as they offer flexible reconfiguration and an order of magnitude higher frequency tuning range than electronic filters. However, all MWP filters to date have been limited by trade-offs between key parameters such as tuning range, resolution, and suppression. This problem is exacerbated in the case of integrated MWP filters, blocking the path to compact, high performance filters. Here we show the first chip-based MWP ban…
I studied experimentally the beam self-collimation and splitting in two-dimensional microwave photonic crystals. Using a microwave photonic crystal fabricated from alumina rods, I present an experimental proof of principle for an earlier theoretical proposal [A. Matthews et al., Opt. Commun. 279, 313 (2007)] of a photonic crystal beam splitter based on the self-collimation effect.
Integrating nanoscale electromechanical transducers and nanophotonic devices potentially can enable new acousto-optic devices to reach unprecedented high frequencies and modulation efficiency. Here, we demonstrate acousto-optic modulation of a photonic crystal nanocavity using Lamb waves with frequency up to 19 GHz, reaching the microwave K band. The devices are fabricated in suspended aluminum nitride membrane. Excitation of acoustic waves is achieved with interdigital transducers with periods as small as 300 nm. Confining both acoustic wave and optical wave within the thickness of the membra…
Today, wide-open, high-resolution Doppler frequency shift (DFS) estimation is essential for radar, microwave/millimeter-wave, and communication systems. Using photonics technology, an effective approach is proposed and experimentally demonstrated, providing a high-resolution and frequency-independent solution. In the approach consisting of two cascaded opto-electronic modulators, DFS between the transmitted microwave/ millimeter-wave signal and the received echo signal is mapped into a doubled spacing between two target optical sidebands. Subsequently, the DFS is then estimated through the spe…
Atmospheric turbulences can generate scintillation or beam wandering phenomena that impairs free space optical (FSO) communication. In this paper, we propose and demonstrate a proof-of-concept FSO communication receiver based on a spatial demultiplexer and a photonic integrated circuit coherent combiner. The system collects the light from several Hermite Gauss spatial modes and coherently combine on chip the energy from the different modes into a single output. The FSO receiver is characterized with a wavefront emulator bench that generates arbitrary phase and intensity patterns. The multimode…
Lithium niobate on insulator emerges as a promising platform for integrated microwave photonics because of its capability of ultralow-loss guidance and high-efficiency modulation of light. Chip-level integration of microwave filters is important for signal processing in the 5G/6G wireless communication. Here, we employed the principle of bound states in the continuum for low-loss waveguiding on an etchless lithium niobate integrated platform, and realized high-performance microwave photonic filters thereon. These microwave photonic filters consist of a high-quality photonic microcavity modulat…
Dissipative solitons rely on the double balance between nonlinearity and dispersion as well as gain and loss have attracted a lot of attention in optics, since it gives rise to ultrashort pulses and broadband frequency combs with good stability and smooth spectral envelopes. Here we observe a novel dissipative solitons in microwave photonics that gives rise to wideband tunable frequency hopping microwave signals with fast frequency switching speed. The dissipative microwave photonic solitions are achieved through the double balance between nonlinear gain saturation and linear filtering as well…
We investigate the impact of pulse interleaving and optical amplification on the spectral purity of microwave signals generated by photodetecting the pulsed output of an Er:fiber-based optical frequency comb. It is shown that the microwave phase noise floor can be extremely sensitive to delay length errors in the interleaver, and the contribution of the quantum noise from optical amplification to the phase noise can be reduced ~10 dB for short pulse detection. We exploit optical amplification, in conjunction with high power handling modified uni-traveling carrier photodetectors, to generate a …
The generation of microwaves from optical signals suffers from thermal and shot noise inherent in the photodetection process. This problem is more acute at lower pulse repetition rates where photodiode saturation limits the achievable signal-to-noise ratio. In this paper, we demonstrate a 10-15 dB reduction in the 10 GHz phase noise floor by multiplication of the pulse repetition rate. Starting with a 250 MHz fundamentally mode-locked erbium(Er):fiber laser, we compare two different approaches to repetition rate multiplication: Fabry-Perot cavity filtering and a cascaded, unbalanced Mach-Zehnd…
Recent advances in photonic integration have propelled microwave photonic technologies to new heights. The ability to interface hybrid material platforms to enhance light-matter interactions has led to the developments of ultra-small and high-bandwidth electro-optic modulators, frequency synthesizers with the lowest noise, and chip signal processors with orders-of-magnitude enhanced spectral resolution. On the other hand, the maturity of high-volume semiconductor processing has finally enabled the complete integration of light sources, modulators, and detectors in a single microwave photonic p…
In the past decade, optical frequency combs generated by high-Q micro-resonators, or micro-combs, which feature compact device footprints, high energy efficiency, and high-repetition-rates in broad optical bandwidths, have led to a revolution in a wide range of fields including metrology, mode-locked lasers, telecommunications, RF photonics, spectroscopy, sensing, and quantum optics. Among these, an application that has attracted great interest is the use of micro-combs for RF photonics, where they offer enhanced functionalities as well as reduced size and power consumption over other approach…
Microwave photonic systems are compelling for their ability to process signals at high frequencies and over extremely wide bandwidths as a basis for next generation communication and radar technologies. However, many applications also require narrow-band $(\sim\text{MHz})$ filtering operations that are challenging to implement using optical filtering techniques, as this requires reliable integration of ultra-high quality factor $(\sim 10^8)$ optical resonators. One way to address this challenge is to utilize long-lived acoustic resonances, taking advantage of their narrow-band frequency respon…
We study experimentally the Goos-Hanchen effect observed at the reflection of a self-collimated beam from the surface of a two-dimensional photonic crystal and describe a method for controlling the beam reflection through surface engineering. The microwave photonic crystal, fabricated from alumina rods, allows control of the output position of a reflected beam undergoing an internal Goos-Hanchen shift by changing the rod diameter at the reflection surface. The experimental data is in good agreement with the results of the finite-difference time-domain numerical calculations.
A photonic integrated circuit (PIC) comprised of an 11 cm multimode speckle waveguide, a 1x32 splitter, and a linear grating coupler array is fabricated and utilized to receive 2 GHz of radio-frequency (RF) signal bandwidth from 2.5 to 4.5 GHz using compressive sensing (CS). Incoming RF signals are modulated onto chirped optical pulses which are input to the multimode waveguide. The multimode waveguide produces the random projections needed for CS via optical speckle. The time-varying phase and amplitude of two test RF signals between 2.5 and 4.5 GHz are successfully recovered using the standa…
Microwave photonics (MWP) studies the interaction between microwave and optical waves for the generation, transmission and processing of microwave signals (i.e., three key domains), taking advantages of broad bandwidth and low loss offered by modern photonics. Integrated MWP using photonic integrated circuits (PICs) can reach a compact, reliable and green implementation. Most PICs, however, are recently developed to perform one or more functions restricted inside a single domain. In this paper, as highly desired, a multifunctional PIC is proposed to cover the three key domains. The PIC is fabr…
We experimentally verified the phenomena of photonic jets generated by plane-electromagnetic-wave-illuminated dielectric micro-cylinders with diameter comparable to the corresponding wavelength at microwave frequencies. Using a home-made 2D spatial field mapping system, we carried out a point-by-point measurement of both phase and intensity of spatial electric field distribution inside and around scattering cylinders, providing a clear complete electromagnetic field picture for these phenomena. Correspondingly, the theoretically predicted super-enhancement of the backscattering induced by smal…
Multimode receivers based on spatial or modal diversity are promising architectures to mitigate in real time the atmospheric turbulence effects for free space optical (FSO) communications. In this paper, we evaluate and comment on the dynamical communication performances of a FSO mode diversity receiver, based on a spatial demultiplexer and a silicon photonic coherent combiner, for an optical link from a GEO satellite to an optical ground station (OGS). We simulate time series of distorted wavefronts received by the OGS and we show numerically that the coherent combination of spatial modes mit…
We demonstrate advanced transversal radio frequency (RF) and microwave functions based on a Kerr optical comb source generated by an integrated micro-ring resonator. We achieve extremely high performance for an optical true time delay aimed at tunable phased array antenna applications, as well as reconfigurable microwave photonic filters. Our results agree well with theory. We show that our true time delay would yield a phased array antenna with features that include high angular resolution and a wide range of beam steering angles, while the microwave photonic filters feature high Q factors, w…
We report on a novel electro-optic device for the diagnostics of high repetition rate laser systems. It is composed of a microwave receiver and of a second order nonlinear crystal, whose irradiation with a train of short laser pulses produces a time-dependent polarization in the crystal itself as a consequence of optical rectification. This process gives rise to the emission of microwave radiation that is detected by a receiver and is analyzed to infer the repetition rate and intensity of the pulses. We believe that this new method may overcome some of the limitations of photodetection techniq…
We utilize and characterize high-power, high-linearity modified uni-traveling carrier (MUTC) photodiodes for low-phase-noise photonic microwave generation based on optical frequency division. When illuminated with picosecond pulses from a repetition-rate-multiplied gigahertz Ti:sapphire modelocked laser, the photodiodes can achieve 10 GHz signal power of +14 dBm. Using these diodes, a 10 GHz microwave tone is generated with less than 500 attoseconds absolute integrated timing jitter (1 Hz-10 MHz) and a phase noise floor of -177 dBc/Hz. We also characterize the electrical response, amplitude-to…
